Danish dream pop duo Linebug have been appearing on our pages since 2020 when they burst onto my radar with their beautiful, hand-drawn video White Nights. After a few years away, they made a triumphant return with their coronavirus inspired track Beijing, and then followed it up with Sideways. Both tracks feature on their new album, Fast Changing Landscapes.
By Graeme Smith
Linebug are singer songwriter Line Bøgh and painter and digital artist Christian Gundtoft. The pair currently reside in the abandoned industrial town of Zeitz in eastern Germany, a ghostly yet beautiful place that gives them inspiration, especially given its contrast to chic Copenhagen. The life of different and forgotten places features heavily in Fast Changing Landscapes. The album opens with its title track, a haunting number led by piano and Line’s gentle vocals. Short and sweet, it sets the scene for what’s to come.
For the album, Linebug teamed up with Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsburg and the collective feature on five of the album’s tracks, starting with the aforementioned Sideways. The orchestra gives it a rich, lively and textured composition, while Line’s image-laden lyrics paint pictures in your head. Skyline also features the orchestra and is a heady mix of classical and experimental elements.
Beijing is a wonderfully descriptive and playful track that sits nicely at the heart of the album along with the melancholic, piano-led Winter Winds and the delicately organic May The Flowers Grow. The album then closes with a trio of tracks that feature Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsburg, contrasting odes to love I Picture It All With You and If I Had A Camera, and the stripped-back and lingering Mermaid.
Whether it be through Christian’s thoughtfully-crafted visuals or Line’s beautiful song-writing, Linebug are a duo who can bring stories to life. I’ve always been a fan of their individual singles but this first chance to hear a complete collection from them hasn’t disappointed. Fast Changing Landscapes is a wonderfully dreamy yet thought-provoking album that will have to seeing the beauty in everything around you. You can give it a listen below.